The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[hultrain]

Question: can I book/hold two ILLs at once or does the same 120 minute rule apply to both ILL and regular LL? Example: let’s say I am going to Hollywood Studios, staying onsite. Can I buy a RotR ILL when bookings open at 7am and then immediately buy a MMRR ILL, or do I have to wait two hours after park open to buy the MMRR ILL?

 

[g-dad66]

You can do both an ILL$ and a Genie+ LL booking at the same time. ILL$ and Genie+ are completely independent of each other.

You can buy Genie+ without buying any ILL$, and you can buy ILL$ without buying Genie+. Or you can buy both. Or you can buy neither.

Which (if either) you want to buy depends on what attractions you want to do, how busy it is, and which you dislike more: (1) standing in lines, or (2) lightening your wallet.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

In everyone's opinion, is genie+ worth the cost or should I just use lightning lane?

I assume when you say "lightning lane", you are referring to the additional purchase of individual lightning lane, like that for ROTR or FOP? If you use Genie+, confusingly, that also gets you a spot in the Lightning Lane!! Such poor naming. But to answer your question, it really depends on what you want to accomplish. If you're satisfied with 2 ILL purchases per day and then standby lines the rest, then skip Genie+. If you want to try and get shorter waits for a few of your non-ILL attractions, then purchase and use Genie+.

 

[Disturbia]

IMHO, Genie+ is definitely worth it in MK and HS. At AK the queues are a bit more comfortable and at Epcot, most queues are indoors as well. LLIA$ is definitely worth it for SDMT, FOP, Remy, ROTR. Even if the waits went down, we wouldn’t regret paying for it as we would ride them twice.

We paid all days (except checkin; flights cancelled fiasco) even when we had only 3-4 hours on checkout day. We have young kids so it was worth it. The only day it felt completely useless was at AK when it rained all day (in Nov!). It was also too stressful to schedule and run around at Epcot (don’t overlap at Epcot)

 

[hultrain]

You can do both an ILL$ and a Genie+ LL booking at the same time. ILL$ and Genie+ are completely independent of each other.

You can buy Genie+ without buying any ILL$, and you can buy ILL$ without buying Genie+. Or you can buy both. Or you can buy neither.

Which (if either) you want to buy depends on what attractions you want to do, how busy it is, and which you dislike more: (1) standing in lines, or (2) lightening your wallet.

I get that. My question is: can I buy 2 ILL$ right when the window opens at 7:00, or do I have to buy one at 7:00am and buy the other 2 hours after park opens? In other words, does the 120 minute rule apply to buying ILL$?

 

[g-dad66]

I get that. My question is: can I buy 2 ILL$ right when the window opens at 7:00, or do I have to buy one at 7:00am and buy the other 2 hours after park opens? In other words, does the 120 minute rule apply to buying ILL$?

You can buy both. I did it in November.

 

[yeahdisney]

We did lightning and Genie plus. Jan 14

7am. Plan Split day for Hollywood studio and MK. Picking up a Manual wheelchair.
Purchased ROR right at 7am wanted 10am got 150; changed park bought 7 DMT for 415PM.
Then Purchased genie plus picked millennium falcon got 145. Then Picked BIg thunder mountain for MK 450PM.

Rope dropped slinky dog was allowed to line up for it , moved forward in line 815 and the ride started at 830 for early entry guests. Rode toy story twice. Wanted rip rock it (down till noon). Did the lightening McQueen show walk on.

Stand by star tours but due to wheelchair did use the quick line for this ride. Frozen show down most of the morning. So could not pick this for genie plus. Noon Indian Jones show stand by.

Lunch. Rosie all American cafe. Teddy was the ONLY CASHIER AND HE WAS FABULOUS. but I should of mobile ordered. Walked up, did not realize he was the only cashier :said wait time was 20 minutes so I got in line. The line only went to one register which I could not see from the back. So I did not get to him for the 20 minutes anyway.

At 1:03 it allowed us to pick another genie + so we picked another at MK, it let us pick another genie + ride every 2 hours. And they could overlap with the lightening and my sister did not want to ride one genie + ride, it did give the option to leave her off the selection.

Millennium falcon was walk on with the genie +. I did not look to see what the wait time was. The person that sat with us was a single person, and they said they did the single person line with a group of six and they walked Straight onto the ride.
ROR wait time was 155 and it was at least a 15 minute wait with the purchased lightning line.

Switched to MK Used purchased 7DMT:
Genie + Buzz light year : wait time 60 min SB
Genie + big thunder it was down so we got any time ride with a list of exceptions. We went that way to take a break get snacks and hope it came back up. And it did!
Genie + HM : 60 minute wait SB
It’s a small world walk on
Genie + pirates : 60 minutes SB
Mobile order nachos. Ran to fireworks. Mobile ordered Casey’s.
Genie + Ariel : it was walk on
Ran to 7DMT to make the line before 9.

Random: Saturday when we were leaving. I looked for ROR at 752AM and you still could buy it for 7pm.

When we did start to buy the day before for Jan 14 ROR it said 10am buy with the last purchase click it did give us the later time.

 

[dmunsil]

Do we have an understanding on whether cancelling a G+LL makes you eligible to book a new one?

On my first day, we won’t go into MK until 5pm. If I can’t get a LL for that late, my plan is to book something with plan to cancel it later to rebook. For example I would book my second LL at 11 am as usual. Then immediately cancel the first dummy LL and try to book a new one. Will this work?

Yes, Your scenario should work, or at least it worked a few weeks ago when I tested it. Cancelling a G+ LL always makes you eligible to book a new one, no matter which one you cancel. It does not need to be the most recent one.

Edit: Disney changed the rules at some point in the last few weeks. Cancelling any reservation other than the one you most recently booked does nothing.

 

[Orsino]

Yes, Your scenario should work, or at least it worked a few weeks ago when I tested it. Cancelling a G+ LL always makes you eligible to book a new one, no matter which one you cancel. It does not need to be the most recent one.

Fantastic. I’m happy to hear that.

 

[yeahdisney]

Do you mean you are giving up the LL at 5pm for a later time.

If the LL are all gone there would be none to trade for. On our AK day. At 11 o’clock there was nothing to buy, everything that you could purchase for AK was sold out. So we only purchased Genie plus at that time.

so if you gave up your LL late time I would guess you might not get another offer.

Now for split day MK we got to pick our time we wanted for 7DMT. So I gave us a buffer of an hour. I just picked so we could do standby ride prior if needed.

 

[pdz]

You can get another LL right away (let's call it LL2) if you are tapping into your MOST RECENTLY BOOKED LL (let's call it LL1). You don't have to wait the full 2 hours from the time that you booked LL1.

If 2 hours have gone by since you booked LL1, you are now eligible to book LL2. After using the 2-hour rule, the LL1 booking no longer has any relevance to future eligiblity. It doesn't matter what time the LL1 booking is for or when you use it.

LL2 now determines your next eligibility which is either (a) 2 hours, or (b) when you double-tap into LL2 (whichever comes first).

The good thing is that when you try to book, the app will tell you if you are not eligible, AND it will tell you the next time when you are eligible to book again.

So for example if I book LL1 at 7am for a ride time at 6pm and then book LL2 2 hours after park opens for 10am can I book LL3 once I tap into LL2 at 10am or do I have to wait 2 hours after booking LL2 since I have not used LL1 for 6pm?

 

[cjlong88]

Evening Stack 1/16. Started in Epcot and park hopped to HS

 

[Disturbia]

Evening Stack 1/16. Started in Epcot and park hopped to HS

View attachment 639733

Wow Genie Slayer!

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Thank you for your responses that did help.

So, for those who have been during a very busy time, what is a typical stand by time for RoTR? Im sure being off site means the line will be crazy, but Im curious what we would be looking at for a wait? Would you recommend not doing that first thing when park opens (Spring Break) and just hope to luck out in the last part of the day? As we are not hopping and staying till close, maybe that would be my best option?

I checked last Friday for an example. The actual wait time for Rise dropped to 25 minutes about 20 minutes before closing time. That’s not too bad. The posted wait was 60.

 

[g-dad66]

So for example if I book LL1 at 7am for a ride time at 6pm and then book LL2 2 hours after park opens for 10am can I book LL3 once I tap into LL2 at 10am or do I have to wait 2 hours after booking LL2 since I have not used LL1 for 6pm?

You are eligible for LL 3 when you double-tap into LL 2 at 10am. It doesn't matter when you use LL 1. LL 1 has no relevance to eligibility any more.


(Minor quibble with your example.:
You are unlikely to have LL 2 for 10am time because even if the park opened at 8am, your booking time for second LL would at 10am, and the LL time is not likely to be immediate.)

 

[g-dad66]

Evening Stack 1/16. Started in Epcot and park hopped to HS

View attachment 639733

That's what I call a perfect stack. Well played.

Interesting about those two 8:30-9:00 time slots. I had thought all return windows were 1-hour.

Any trouble hoofing it from ToT to TSM (or vice-versa) by 9:00? Wonder if one still gets the 5-minute grace period if the 5 minutes are after 9pm park close? I would presume so.

 

[g-dad66]

We did lightning and Genie plus. Jan 14

7am. Plan Split day for Hollywood studio and MK. Picking up a Manual wheelchair.
Purchased ROR right at 7am wanted 10am got 150; changed park bought 7 DMT for 415PM.
Then Purchased genie plus picked millennium falcon got 145. Then Picked BIg thunder mountain for MK 450PM.

Rope dropped slinky dog was allowed to line up for it , moved forward in line 815 and the ride started at 830 for early entry guests. Rode toy story twice. Wanted rip rock it (down till noon). Did the lightening McQueen show walk on.

Stand by star tours but due to wheelchair did use the quick line for this ride. Frozen show down most of the morning. So could not pick this for genie plus. Noon Indian Jones show stand by.

Lunch. Rosie all American cafe. Teddy was the ONLY CASHIER AND HE WAS FABULOUS. but I should of mobile ordered. Walked up, did not realize he was the only cashier :said wait time was 20 minutes so I got in line. The line only went to one register which I could not see from the back. So I did not get to him for the 20 minutes anyway.

At 1:03 it allowed us to pick another genie + so we picked another at MK, it let us pick another genie + ride every 2 hours. And they could overlap with the lightening and my sister did not want to ride one genie + ride, it did give the option to leave her off the selection.

Millennium falcon was walk on with the genie +. I did not look to see what the wait time was. The person that sat with us was a single person, and they said they did the single person line with a group of six and they walked Straight onto the ride.
ROR wait time was 155 and it was at least a 15 minute wait with the purchased lightning line.

Switched to MK Used purchased 7DMT:
Genie + Buzz light year : wait time 60 min SB
Genie + big thunder it was down so we got any time ride with a list of exceptions. We went that way to take a break get snacks and hope it came back up. And it did!
Genie + HM : 60 minute wait SB
It’s a small world walk on
Genie + pirates : 60 minutes SB
Mobile order nachos. Ran to fireworks. Mobile ordered Casey’s.
Genie + Ariel : it was walk on
Ran to 7DMT to make the line before 9.

Random: Saturday when we were leaving. I looked for ROR at 752AM and you still could buy it for 7pm.

When we did start to buy the day before for Jan 14 ROR it said 10am buy with the last purchase click it did give us the later time.

Well done.

Just to clarify: At 7am, you booked Millenium Falcon, correct? You booked Big Thunder at 11am, correct?

It sounded like you booked both at 7am, and you had me scratching my head as to how you could do that.

 

[cjlong88]

That's what I call a perfect stack. Well played.

Interesting about those two 8:30-9:00 time slots. I had thought all return windows were 1-hour.

Any trouble hoofing it from ToT to TSM (or vice-versa) by 9:00? Wonder if one still gets the 5-minute grace period if the 5 minutes are after 9pm park close? I would presume so.

We actually tapped into ToT at 8:22 and asked if that was okay that we were a bit early. The CM had no problem with it (wasn’t expecting that so it was an awesome surprise). We were off ToT at 8:44 pm and had 16 minutes to make it to TSM. We walked briskly and made it in around 8:52.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

That's what I call a perfect stack. Well played.

Interesting about those two 8:30-9:00 time slots. I had thought all return windows were 1-hour.

Any trouble hoofing it from ToT to TSM (or vice-versa) by 9:00? Wonder if one still gets the 5-minute grace period if the 5 minutes are after 9pm park close? I would presume so.

There is no grace period after the park closes. You can get in line at 8:59 but not 9:00.

 

[mld2177]

Can I add Genie each morning for specific parks? Or do I have to add it ahead of time?